Bears Earn 4-4 Tie with St. Cloud State

ST. CLOUD, MN - Sophomore Jeff Prough (Farmington Hills, MI) scored the tying goal at 3:51 of the third period to lift the Brown men's ice hockey team (2-5-1) to a 4-4 tie with St. Cloud State (5-7-2) in a non-league game on Saturday evening at the National Hockey Center. The game was back-and-forth from the opening whistle with the two teams trading goals all night, as neither team ever led by more than one goal during the game.

The Bears dominated the pace of the play during the early part of the first period, outshooting St. Cloud 3-1 during the first half of the period. With Brown skating on the first power-play of the game, a tripping penalty on the Huskies' Matt Stephenson, St. Cloud took advantage of a Brown miscue and skate in on a three-on-one rush with just senior Paul Crosty (Edmonton, ALB) back on defense and sophomore Adam D'Alba (Glencoe, IL) in the net. The Huskies executed the three-on-one perfectly, and took a 1-0 lead at 11:05 of the first with the short-handed tally.

Just 25 seconds later, Stephenson was whistled for a five-minute checking from behind along with a game-misconduct. Brown capitalized 1:25 into the man-advantage, to knot the game at 1-1. Sophomore Brian McNary (Edmonton, ALB) redirected the puck past Tim Boron off a feed from junior Sean Dersch (Edmonton, ALB), who was behind the net. Prough also assisted on the goal.

Brown couldn't generate many chances during the remaining 3:35 of the power-play and with just 45 seconds left, Konrad Reeder scored the Huskies' second short-handed goal of the night.

Again, Brown battled back, scoring the game's first even-strength goal. After St. Cloud tried to clear the puck out of their zone, freshman Sean Muncy (Chesterfield, MO) picked up the lose puck and dropped it for senior Rugo Santini (Winchester, MA), who beat Boron with a quick wrist shot to tie the game at 2-2 at 17:13 of the period.

The Bears took their first lead of the weekend at 5:27 of the second when freshman Ryan Garbutt (Winnipeg, MAN) scored his first career goal off a pass from classmate Matt Vokes (Auburn, MA). Junior Antonin Roux (Danville, QUE) also earned an assist on the goal, which came just 1:22 after the Bears had successfully killed a power-play during which the Huskies were in the Brown zone for the entire 2:00.

The lead was short-lived however, as Joe Jensen fired a shot that deflected off D'Alba's shoulder and into the back of the net at 6:36 of the second, tying the game at 3-3.

Andrew Gordon scored his second of the game just 42 seconds into the third period, as the Huskies took a 4-3 lead. The Bears again battled back, tying the game at 4-4 when Prough one-timed the puck past Bobby Goepfert, who replaced Boron after Brown's third goal, off a feed from McNary at 3:51.

Prough's goal sent the game into overtime, but neither team could net the winning goal as the game ended in a 4-4 tie.
D'Alba finished with 29 saves, including six in overtime. The Bears return to ECAC Hockey League action next weekend when they host Yale in a 7:00 p.m. contest at Meehan Auditorium.